Willie Louis, 1937-2013

Emmett Till murder witness

Willie Louis was a witness to the murder of Emmett Till, testifying in court on a case that opened the nation's eyes to the dangerous discrimination facing African-Americans in the 1950s.

After the trial, fearing for his life in the South, he fled to Chicago, changed his name and slipped out of the public eye for nearly 50 years.

"He was an unsung civil rights hero," said Mike Small, a friend and history teacher who has studied the Till case.

Mr. Louis, 76, died of intestinal bleeding Thursday, July 18, at Advocate Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, a relative said. He was a resident of Chicago.

Mr. Louis was born in Greenwood, Miss., where he lived with his grandparents, who worked as sharecroppers, said his wife, Juliet.

On Aug. 28, 1955, Till, 14, visiting Mississippi from Chicago, was murdered after he allegedly whistled at a white woman. On that day, Mr. Louis, then known as Willie Reed, noticed two white men driving a truck into a barn with two black males in the back.

He was standing with an older woman near a well when he heard a male screaming for his life inside the barn, his wife said.

"He heard all this hollering and screaming until there was no more hollering and screaming," she said.

Later that day, a white man approached Mr. Louis with a gun, Juliet Louis said. "He said, 'Boy, did you see anything?' And he said 'no.' He said, 'Did you hear anything?' He said 'no.'"

He later found out that Till's body had been dumped in the Tallahatchie River.

His grandfather told him he shouldn't bother telling anyone because it was too dangerous to accuse a white man of murder, but a few days later civil rights leaders asked him about what he may have seen, according to his wife.

"He said he couldn't have lived with it; he had to tell them what he saw," she said.

He agreed to testify in court, and a local black doctor hid him until the trial started later that year. Despite his testimony, the two white men accused of the murder were acquitted by an all-white jury.

After the trial, Mr. Louis got on a train to Chicago, where he changed his name. The psychological stress of witnessing a murder and testifying in court took a toll, causing him to suffer a nervous breakdown that landed him in a hospital, his wife said.

Till's family lost touch with Mr. Louis soon after the trial, according to Till's relative Wheeler Parker, 74.

In the late 1950s, Mr. Louis became an orderly at Woodlawn Hospital in Chicago and later at Jackson Park Hospital. He worked at Jackson Park until he retired in 2006, his wife said.

The couple met at Jackson Park in 1971. She was working as a nursing aide in the intensive care unit when Mr. Louis came to pick up patient.

The couple married in 1976, but it would be another eight years before Juliet Louis ever found out her husband was a witness in the Till case, she said. Even after she found out, "he didn't talk about it much."

That changed when a journalist, Stanley Nelson, came to Mr. Louis' home in Englewood asking him to participate in his research project about the murder.

"Stanley started having him bring back memories," his wife said. "It opened up a wound."

Nelson's research turned into a documentary that eventually aired on PBS. Nelson introduced Mr. Louis to Till's mother. Soon after, Mr. Louis began talking about what he witnessed publicly on television and community events.

Those close to him hope his legacy will last beyond his death.

"I think his story needs to be told over and over again," Parker said. "He's a great role model in doing what's right."

Mr. Louis is also survived by a son, Sollie McKinnon.

A visitation is set for 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at New Commandment Church of God in Christ, 1742 W. 63rd St., Chicago.